Ondrej Pala vs. Konstantin Airich II RBR

:rofl

 

Right...you joined last year, so you probably caught the wave of positive feedback following the Mazikin rematch. It wasn't like he blew me away, like Bogdan Dinu against Tamim. He just looked pretty good - especially in contrast with Teper (who was supposed to be one of Germany's young HW hopes).

My opinion of him remains unchanged, really.

He's a good heavyweight, not great. He has potential to improve, but probably not to ever be top level. Titlist? Maybe. I'd still class him as a prospect/contender and not yet quite a journeyman.

He's clearly a better fighter than Airich, but he fought dumb against him and paid the price for it. He doesn't have the chin or the fluid elusiveness to carry his left arm so low and stay almost in the pocket like that.

I would pick Pala with confidence in a rubbermatch. He demonstrated for 95% of the time they were in the ring together (really except for the few moments that Airich hurt him) that he was more skilled and could control Airich with his jab and movement when he wanted to. It's when he strayed too close and got cocky trying to show off defensive slickness that he just doesn't have in him that Konstantin was able to touch him and affect him with those haymakers.

So, legit win for Airich. Setback for Pala. It doesn't mean he's a bum, though. Or even just relegated to a journeyman with only three losses. (one being an effort against Boytsov where he didn't embarrass himself, and the other being to Renee Dettweiler when both were undefeated and Pala was in his eleventh pro bout and bloated up to a career high weight)

If he goes back to the drawing board and doesn't try to go outside of what he's good at, he could rebuild from this as a learning opportunity and still have a decent career.

As for the Walker comparison - I just think Pala has Walker edged in every category except obviously power. Pala's chin isn't perfect by any means, as we saw today, but it isn't the glass Walker is cursed with. It took stupidly getting hit with big wildly loaded up shots for him to be hurt by a big hitter in Airich, and even then it took many follow-up shots to get the Czech in serious trouble and looking ready to go each time he was hurt (and yeah, the ref probably blew two separate chances for the TKO before the final one). Pala has a much more effective jab than Walker. He throws straighter shots in combination. He moves around the ring better. When he isn't thinking he can do a shoulder roll, he has much better defense.

He's a level above Walker.

Having said that, though - if he fought as dumb as he fought against Airich, against Walker...he'd be KTFO into next century. :yep As hard as Airich hits, Walker hits five times harder. You can't muck around and make idiotic mistakes getting cocky with him.

 

Sorry, man. :verysad

No FNF. No ShoBox. No Boxeo Telemundo. No Boxeo De Primera.

It's a bye night for the sport.